Warning – Rambling Ahead
I’ve been thinking about my health a lot lately.
It’s easy to feel slothful when I’m working eight hours at a desk or sitting around a meeting table, only to interrupt myself to hop on the elevator to go down a few flights to get a coffee or a meal in the cafeteria. I then walk over to the subway and after a short ride and a transfer onto a bus, I find myself home having dinner with the kids – only to log back on to my computer to work on the business in the evening. I’m a pretty driven person in general, but I know that too much stress is not good on the body. And I’ve noticed a bit of a tire forming around my middle and I’m not liking it one bit.
So I’ve been motivated to seek out practitioners that force me to look after my health. I’ve hired a personal trainer so that I MUST work out two times a week. And today, I saw a holistic nutritionist.
Now, if you haven’t seen a holistic nutritionist, most people would consider the profession a bit “out there”. Compared to the regular community, they are pretty hard-core with their diet recommendations. I’ve seen a naturopath before and knew what I was getting into. But today, I flat out told Lili that I wasn’t going to cut out gluten, dairy, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and many other things that I love and adore. She of course smiled at me. After giving me that look that meant she’s seen a hundred of my types before, she told me that I’d likely get to the state where I’ll WANT to avoid those foods.
Whatever.
Her kernels of advice for session one included doubling up on probiotics, adding a fish pill supplement to my diet, and avoiding starches after 5:00pm at least five of seven days a week.
So of course, acting as if it would be my last day before the end of the world, I gorged “for the last time” on curry pad thai for dinner.
Anyway, this is relevant to my business in that she reminded me of one big thing: I’m stressed. I tend to be in denial about it. I suppose it’s natural. Between caring for my two small kids, being a supportive wife, launching a business, dealing with the massive amount of change at work, not to mention the usual day-to-day stuff I need to deal with as a senior manager in an office – well, I’m beyond stressed.
Not to mention tired. Right now at this moment, I’m tired. Like bone tired. I could blame it on the pad thai (according to the holistic nutritionist), but it’s also likely the stress.
The Point
A couple of weeks ago, I downloaded a copy of Rick Schefren’s eBook The Internet Business Manifesto, where he writes this quote:
Since when is “more” the solution to “too much”?
That statement resonated so deeply that it made me stop and think. Immediately, I started looking around me and I frequently saw that I was piling one thing after another onto my plate.
Like this:
- Run a half-marathon this fall.
- Lose 10 pounds.
- Finish knitting that sweater.
- Create a really neato photo album for my children to preserve memories.
- Do my taxes.
- Buy towels and other items to prepare for my family’s visit from Vancouver in a few weeks.
- Go through my second daughter’s closet and purge.
- Purge my own clothes.
- Donate the shoes that I can’t wear since my feet have not returned to their normal size after the birth of my second child.
- Reupholster the chair in the living room.
- Get cushions made for my new kitchen chairs.
- Paint my first daughter’s room.
- Shop for some new clothes.
- Visit the chiropractor and physiotherapist to take care of that nasty pain in my shoulder and back.
Whew.
The Fear
Part of me does wonder what it will be like to run a successful business. I frequently discuss this with my husband. I worry who I’ll socialize with. There are mommy groups, but while I love mommies, let’s face it – just because our kids get along does not mean that we’ll get along.
I’m a workaholic in my core, so I also worry that I’ll work way too much. That I’ll be checking my email constantly, anticipating my next deliverable from India. Or be inundated with comment spam.
The Hope
John Chow has been blogging about the Rules of Living the Dot-Com Lifestyle:
- Rule 1 – Work More Efficiently
- Rule 2 – Never Trade Hours For Dollars
- Rule 3 – Make Passive Income
- Rule 4 – Use People
- Rule 5 – Automate, Delegate, Eliminate
I love this series because it reminds me of two things:
- I am doing all this hard work now so I can live a more relaxed and fulfilling life. It is possible to love what I do, make enough money to live a terrific life and not keep a 9-to-5 job.
- I need to heed his Rule 3, and remember that it’s most important for me to develop a system for creating and running these sites. That it’s important to assemble a team and suite of applications to ensure that I am not slavishly running my business.
My goal is to create a business that allows me to be fully in the present for my husband, my children and me, and to pursue the things I want out of life. And while I love running a business, my value is not in the day-to-day tasks – it’s in the running and conceiving of plans that push the business forward.
So something else to add to my To Do list: build an excellent business that does not require me to work day-in and day-out to keep it successful.
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